Dillon the Destroyer – Talk about a guy who can rip out a defense’s soul. On that one touchdown, he carried half the Vikings’ team on his back and was able to support that weight with one hand on the ground while he found the goal line with the football extending his other arm. He’s be quite a hit at your Festivus celebration.
Close to the Vest – How about LaFleur sporting a vest and not a parka in that weather? Not so close to the vest was the play calling. I feel like we’re seeing some more creative play designs with detailed misdirection tactics than we were earlier in the season, and I like it.
Misdirection + Eye Candy = Throwing Windows pic.twitter.com/8UyLCaZzUK
— Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL) January 3, 2022
Shotgun short yardage – To quote Aaron Nagler, ” I will forever hate running the ball out of shotgun on short yardage.” I get that Rodgers likely has a run/pass option in those cases, but when they do run it, the target hole is extremely predictable (always to the side of the line opposite where the running back is), and the RB doesn’t seem to get a proper head of steam going. That’s especially true for Dillon. Line him up 6-7 yards back and hand him the ball at full speed and let’s see who’s stopping him from getting those 2 yards.
Tackling is back – After what Lafleur called it the worst tackling performance of the year against Cleveland, they turned things around big time. They swarmed to the ball, arrived with vigor and hit their targets with force – a 180 degree turnaround.
Red-faced – Tom Coughlin has nothing on Mike Zimmer. Zimmer-face was a thing as early as the first quarter,
Swervin’ Moore – Remember Tyler Ervin’s first game returning kicks and how ecstatic we were about having someone that seemed to know what they were doing back there? I got the same vibes watching David Moore’s Packers debut.
Stokes – Spofford put together some clips of Stokes in coverage, mostly vs. Jefferson. Check it out. Oh, and where’s ImaAPayne who came into this comment section to tell us how bad Stokes was.
What’s the common thread in these clips? He’s in man coverage and starts out inside of five yards of the receiver. Not off 7-10 yards.
— Jersey Al – GBP (@JerseyAlGBP) January 4, 2022
How about dem ‘boys – I don’t know about you, but I’ve been having some fun with my Cowboys fan friends this week. They were on top of the world last week and just like that – poof!
Same old, same old – Speaking of the Cowboys, I see McCarthy is up to his old tricks in Dallas. 12 run attempts total for Elliot and Pollard.
No mo’ toe – It appears to me that Rodgers’ toe was not bothering him at all and he got through the game with it feeling good. The tell tale sign for me was video of him running through the tunnel after the game, He would have been walking if it was bothering him in any way.
Very Special – TE Tyler Davis was on the field for 24 special teams snaps on Sunday Night. You have to think that means he was in on EVERY special teams play. That’s highly unusual.
I’ll just leave this here…
In Aaron Rodgers last year with McCarthy, 20.9% of his drop backs resulted in either a sack, scramble, or throwaway – the highest figure of his career
This year, that number is 12.8% – the lowest figure of his career
— Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) January 3, 2022
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“Jersey Al” Bracco is the Editor-In-Chief, part owner and wearer of many hats for CheeseheadTV.com and PackersTalk.com. He is also a recovering Mason Crosby truther. Follow Al on twitter at @JerseyalGBP.